The Open University of Israel

Software Design Course for Leading CS In-service Teachers

Ofra Brandesbrandes@huji.ac.il

Tamar Vilnertami@cs.openu.ac.il

Ela Zurela@cs.openu.ac.il

The Open University of Israel

The High School CS Curriculum

The Israel’s high school curriculum was designed between 1990-1993 and implemented in 1995

Rapid changes in CS curriculum

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The Israeli CS High School Curriculum

The CS curriculum has two versions: 5-points, 3-points.

Each point represents 90 class hours.

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The Israel’s High School CS Curriculum (cont.)

3-units: Fundamentals 1 Fundamentals 2 Several alternatives for different

paradigm 5-units:

The above 3-units Software design Several alternatives such as:

computational models, Computer Systems and Assembly Language etc.

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The Israel’s High School CS Curriculum (cont.)

The three units: Fundamentals 1, Fundamentals 2 and software design moved from procedural approach to OOP;

This talk deals with one aspect of this change, relating to the software design unit.

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Object Based Software Design Unit

The Goals To present the principles of a systematic

approach to programming;

To teach basic concepts of complexity; To develop abstract thinking;

To teach how to define data structures and abstract data types;

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Leading Teachers

The goals of the leading teachers course are:

To enhance the participants’ understanding of new topics and materials;

To strengthen the group as a professional community;

To foster leadership growth.

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Object Based Software Design Course for Leading Teachers

112 hours; Prerequisites:

In-service teachers; Previous knowledge of Java or C#; To teach the unit during the current

year; To agree to guide a regional workshop.

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THE STUDY

We accompanied the leading teachers

course by ongoing qualitative research

in order to estimate the extent to which

the team's goals for the course were

achieved.

The research questions refer to the course

goals and to the team’s expectations.

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THE STUDYResearch Questions

1. Did the leading teachers gain an enhanced understanding of the unit contents?

2. Did we succeed in training the leading teachers to guide and direct regional pedagogical workshops for their peers?

3. Did the course succeed in creating a professional leadership of CS teachers who feel responsible to the CS teachers' community?

4. What factors in the course structure affected, positively or negatively, the fulfillment of the team's expectations?

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Research Population

The research population consisted of 25

teachers:

• 17 teachers (68%) had a B.A. or B.Sc. in CS

• 6 teachers (24%) had a B.Sc. in other sciences

• Only 2 (8%) had a B.A. in other, non-scientific,

disciplines.

17 teachers had a second degree (M.A. or

M.Sc.) in various disciplines, such as CS,

Education and others.

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Teachers' previous knowledge of Java and C#

Knowledge of C# Knowledge of Java

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Research Instruments Questionnaire no.1- The course participants were asked to

complete a questionnaire before they started the course. The

questionnaire contained questions about their background

and their expectations of the course.

Questionnaire no.2- Another questionnaire was handed to the

teachers at the beginning of the summer seminar, which

ended the leading teachers course. This questionnaire

focused on their attitudes and understanding of the concept

of a leading teacher.

Two discussions - about the participants perceived benefits

and achievements from the course, at the beginning and the

end of the summer seminar. Those discussions were recorded

by audiotape and later transcribed.

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The First Categorical System

From the first questionnaire, we collected 59 quotes, grouped similar quotes and then divided the leading teachers’ expectations into three main categories:

• the individual aspect

• the social aspect

• the community aspectThese categories were divided again into sub-categories.

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The First Categorical System

CategoriesSub-categories

Individual aspect (33)

Content enrichment (16)

Extending and developing the questions pool (4)Didactic enrichment (13)

Social aspect (13)Psychological support group (2)

Content support group (11)

Community aspect (13)

Contribution to the community (8)Influencing the content of the software design unit (5)

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The Second Categorical System

CategoriesSub-categories

Individual aspect (11)

Content enrichment (9)

Extending and developing the questions pool (0)Didactic enrichment (2)

Social aspect (17)Psychological support group (11)Content support group (6)

Community aspect (34)

Contribution to the community (27)Influencing the content of the software design unit (7)

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Results and Discussion Enhanced understanding of the unit

contents The leading teacher’s feeling at the end of

the course was that their knowledge was extended and enhanced;

Guiding workshops 6 pedagogical workshops were conducted

in different regions, guided by 13 of the leading teachers. Guiding workshops contributes to the knowledge, self-confidence and professional development of the workshop-teachers.

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Results and Discussion (cont.)

Creating CS leadership1. Contribute to the community by

supplying answers to pool of questions and transferring an existing laboratory collection from JAVA to C#.

2. In one workshop, the leading teachers voluntarily double the workshop length.

3. Most of the leading teachers were active members in the Object Based System Design web-forum

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Results and Discussion (cont.)

Factors affecting the course1. The experience of guiding workshops;2. The direct connections between the

leading teachers and the team;3. The existence of a support group

among the leading teachers.

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Conclusions

Before the course, the teachers were mainly interested in enhancing their own knowledge.

The course process led them to an understanding of the need for leading teachers.

They realized that they can serve as the needed professional CS leadership.

The subjective interest in the course had changed during the process to a communal one.

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Conclusions (cont.)

The following factors can explain at least some of the achievements:

Social interaction between the teachers themselves;

Close interaction with the team developing the unit;

Practical experience in guiding pedagogical workshops for leading teacher colleagues.

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Thank You!Thank You!